Arizona Basketball: Wildcats hang on to win in OT against the Utah Utes

It took an overtime to get there, but the Arizona Basketball team (11-4, 2-0) found a way to win a close one over the Utah Utes (7-7, 1-1).

Two in a row! The Arizona Wildcats found themselves in a hard fought battle against the Utah Utes on Saturday afternoon, but in the end, the Wildcats got it done. Arizona made the stops they needed, hit some clutch free throws down the stretch to come away with a 84-81 victory in overtime.

Now with an overall record of 11-4 and 2-0 in the Pac-12, the Wildcats will now have a few days off before they travel on the road to take on the Stanford Cardinal on Wednesday.

Arizona Wildcats

Ties, lead changes, foul outs, turnovers, clutch free throws, this game had it all. After coming from 17-down to beat ASU the other night, the Utes felt confident and liked there chances of pulling off the upset in Tucson.

Senior guard for Utah Sedrick Barefield led the way for the Utes, scoring 26 points, with four assists and three steals. However, he would foul out with about two minutes to go in the second half, which would come back to hurt his team not having him available in overtime.

The game got underway on Saturday afternoon, with both teams shooting lights out in the first half. The Utes had connected on 61 percent of their first half attempts, meanwhile the Wildcats had shot 56 percent from the field.

In the first half, the Utes would go on a 10-0 run to take a 20-10 lead before the Wildcats would finally respond, going on one of their own, cutting the lead to 20-19 with 10:24 to play in the half.

Both teams also took decent care of the ball in the first half, with Utah having just nine turnovers overs and the Wildcats with only five. Arizona and Utah would continue to exchange buckets for much of that first half, as Arizona and Utah were tied at 36-36 at the break.

While the Wildcats were shooting well, they didn’t look that great from three-point land in the half, shooting only 2-7. They were able to though drive to the basket, cause fouls and get to the line.

Arizona had good ball movement and found ways to get Chase Jeter the ball inside, as he led the team in the first half with 12 points.

Overall, the first half stats reflected how truly close this game was. The Wildcats did have the slight edge in points in the paint 26-14 and bench points 16-10. Both Ira Lee and Dylan Smith provided the spark of the bench to keep their team in it.

Early on in the second half it was more of the same, with both teams trading baskets, not getting consecutive stops to go on any sort of run, the Wildcats would build a six point lead, eight minutes into the half. That run all coming by way of the three-pointer, first with Brandon Williams able to knock down one and then Ryan Luther made two in a row.

However, the Utes though wouldn’t go away. Led largely by Barefield, they would find a way to come back and take a five-point lead with about five minutes to go. A combination of key defensive stops, Utes turnovers, and made free throws by Brandon Randolph and Williams gave the chance the Wildcats to win at the end.

Utah did have a chance to win it at the end, but they turned it over. Justin Coleman tried to replicate his three point buzzer magic they he had against UC Davis but came up short, bringing the game into overtime tied 72-72!

In overtime, the Wildcats came up clutch!  Down the stretch, the Wildcats played “in your face” defense, not making it easy at all for the Utes to get an easy looks. On offense, Randolph hit a couple shots, grabbed a huge rebound and knocked down two free throws in the end to make it a three point game. Both Jeter and Williams made some key free throws in extra time to give the Wildcats the 84-81 victory!

For the Wildcats, they were led by both Jeter and Randolph. Jeter finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and four assists, making it three double-doubles on the season. Plus, he tied his career high at Arizona of 21 points. Knowing how crucial he is to the overall success of the team, his teammates were looking for him down low. This sweet looking dribble and dish by Coleman is an example of that:

Randolph had another solid performance for the Wildcats, finishing with 21 points, two rebounds and one assist, including going 4-4 from the free throw line. Williams finished with 11 points and three assists.

The bench came up huge for the Cats in the game, scoring 27 points! Smith led the way with 11 points and going 3-3 from three. Luther had eight, Lee had six and Doutrive had 2 points.

The keys to this game came down to free throws and rebounds. The Wildcats had the slight overall lead in rebounds 30-26 and made free throws 23-30 compared to the Utes’ 10-14.

Finding ways to win, when shots aren’t falling, is crucial for this teams’ overall success. Because this year’s team is more dependent on working hard as a collective unit to get the win, they will need to continue to fight hard to the very end.

Relive all those highlights of this exciting overtime thriller!

At Zona Zealots, we would like to congratulate this team on coming out on top with the win. This one had to be earned and the Wildcats dug deep for this one. Like the Arizona Wildcats Women’s basketball team, both start out Pac-12 conference play 2-0. Let’s keep the streak going! Bear Down, Arizona!